My advice to Josh is to keep it simple and profitable. For instance: 

Regarding investments: For investment advice, do not trust people. Instead, trust results–only. A diversified, core, mix of no load, low cost, index funds is the way to go. Why? Long term, not one expert has ever picked a mix of managed funds and/or asset-allocation, target-date, lifecycle, lifestyle, or balanced funds that beat a diversified, core, mix of index funds in performance. Therefore, it makes no sense to  pay an expert for his or her advice on investing in managed funds. Never, ever, allow anyone to experiment with your hard-earned money. To learn about asset-allocation and re-balancing, please read one of my previous posts on that topic.

Regarding life insurance: You said this: “…Most of the financial advisors tell me to buy term life and invest the difference….” Apparently, they know your financial situation. Therefore, it makes sense to take their advice: Buy term life insurance and invest the difference in the lowest cost index funds you can get.

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank Cirullo

Step 1: Save at least ten percent of all you earn. Unnecessarily spending your hard-earned money always results in pain. Saving your money always results in pleasure.

Step 2: Plan your estate as if you will die tomorrow. Ask an attorney if you need a will, and ask him or her if you need a trust. Always ask an attorney to help you with your estate planning.

Step 3: Plan your investments as if you will live forever. You will have more money if you pick a diversified, core, mix of investments that can match the market’s performance than if you pick a mix of managed funds, and/or asset-allocation, target-date, lifecycle, lifestyle, and balanced funds that  underperform the market. Most investors who fail to beat the market don’t even know that they have created a major problem for themselves by trying to beat no load, low cost, index funds in performance.

Summary: To have more money, more time, and less stress you will need to go three for three: (1) Save at least ten percent of all you earn. (2) Plan your estate as if you will die tomorrow. (3) Plan your investments as if you will live forever.

You are guaranteed to go three for three if you read my blog posts and do the required work. It’s free information.

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank Cirullo

1. Keep it simple and profitable: Use no load, low cost, index funds for your plan’s core mix of investments.
2. Set up self-directed accounts for employees (participants) who think they can pick managed funds and/or asset-allocation, target-date, lifecycle, lifestyle, and balanced funds that will beat a core mix of index funds in performance. Warning to employees: If you have never picked managed funds that beat index funds in performance–long term–what makes you think you can do it going forward?
3. Consider the possibility that you are paying more than you should for services such as recordkeeping and administration, consulting, and investment advice. For instance, what does added value really mean? The bottom line is how much money YOU earn on your investments after you pay for everything. That is why it makes sense to compare your ROI (Return on Investment) to an appropriate benchmark.
4. If you pay for an asset-allocation and re-balancing program, stop it. Instead, use the classic asset-allocation and re-balancing model and set it up on auto-pilot. It is free and it works as well as the most sophisticated asset-allocation and re-balancing programs.
5. Stop wasting your money. Yes, you can save at least ten percent of all you earn. Savers have a mind-set that makes it hard to let go of their money; they study ways to cut their living expenses. Spenders have a mind-set that makes it hard to hold onto their money. Before you make a purchase, you should ask this question: Whose plan do I want to contribute my hard-earned money to? Can you feel the pain of throwing your money away? Can you feel the joy of looking at your statement and seeing more money in your 401(k) or 403(b) plan than you thought was possible for you to save?

Fall in love with cutting costs and improving investment performance, not with service providers who you may think are the best, brightest, and most popular.

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank Cirullo

Frank Cirullo: “Yes.”

Student: “Can you show me how?”

Frank Cirullo: “Yes.”

Student: “What should I do?”

Frank Cirullo: “First, do you really want to know the facts about your plan? For instance, your mix of managed investments have underperformed a diversified mix of no load, low cost, index funds, and your retirement plan costs more than it should.  If you trust facts instead of opinions, you will see how to improve your plan. By the way, how much money will it cost you, long term, not to improve your retirement plan, today?”

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank Cirullo

Your vantage point will determine whether you set up a truly low cost plan or keep your high cost plan that only appears to be low cost.

For instance, if you only look at high cost plans that create the illusion of being low cost, your plan will almost look normal. But once someone shows you a truly low cost plan and you understand what makes it low cost, you won’t touch a high cost plan again, ever.  With that insight, you will be able to spot the  high cost plans, instantly. 

To learn the truth about your 401k or 403b plan the easy way, you should study the six questions below. After you read the final question, you should be able to visualize what a truly low cost plan looks like:

1. For a core mix of investments, does your plan use managed funds and/or asset-allocation, lifecycle, lifestyle, and balanced funds or index funds? (If your core mix of investments is managed funds, you are experimenting with your hard-earned money, because you don’t have at least a ten year track record of picking a diversified mix of managed funds that beat a diversified mix of index funds in performance. If your mix of managed investments underperform index funds, will you have more money or less? Less, right?)
2. In addition to your plan’s core mix of investments, do employees have the option to set up a self-directed account? (Employees who don’t have a track record of picking managed funds that beat index funds can try it if they have a self-directed account).
3. For recordkeeping and administration, do you pay not more than $25.00, per eligible employee, per year (remember, no hidden or camouflaged costs are allowed)? (The less you pay for recordkeeping and admintration the more of your own money you keep).
4. Did you hire a consultant who has never set up a truly low cost plan? (Always ask for a consultant’s track record so that you know his or her history of setting up low cost plans. First, you need to learn what a truly low cost plan looks like so that you know which consultants actually know how to set up a low cost plan).
5. Did you hire an investment adviser who does not have a long term track record (ten years or more) of picking managed funds that beat a diversified, core, mix of no load, low cost index funds in performance? (Always ask for a long term track record of ten years or more.  You may learn that not one investment adviser has a long term track record of picking managed funds and/or asset-allocation, lifecycle, lifestyle, and balanced funds that beat a diversified, core, mix of no load, low cost index funds in performance). 
6. Does the co-ficuciary for your plan sell investments and/or other services such as recordkeeping and administration, consulting, or investment advice to your plan? (Why would you allow a co-fiduciary to sell investments and/or services to your plan?  Just think about it. It makes no sense to seek advice on how to set up, manage, and monitor a plan from someone who has inherent conflicts of interest. Would he or she fire his or her company for not setting up a low cost plan for you? No!However, it does make sense to ask vendors to explain the laws, rules, and regulations to you).

Many employers and employees have not seen what a truly low cost plan really looks like, yet. That’s  because they have been looking for a 401k or 403b plan in all the wrong places. Their vantage point impacts their judgement, and they don’t know how easy it is to switch to a truly low cost plan. 

To set up a truly low cost plan, you must see what to do–not think about what to do.

See?

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank R. Cirullo

Would you like to know the easiest and fastest way to set up a truly low cost 401k or 403b plan?

If you already have a plan, would you like to know the fastest way to slash its cost?

An important step that many employers ignore is this.  Before you contact vendors for information about what they sell, it makes sense to get focused on the target you want to hit.  It would be a mistake to become distracted by vendors who want to convince you to switch targets.

If you shift your sight to the target you want to hit, you cannot fail to hit the mark, and you will have a truly low cost plan.  Easy!

I know that not one employer would choose a high cost plan over a low cost plan on purpose.  However, if you have a high cost plan that you believe is low cost, the only way for you to see your mistake is to compare your 401k or 403b plan to a truly low cost plan. 

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank Cirullo

If you will take one hour to educate employees on the following six issues, they will help you monitor the plan to ensure that it is low cost. Why would they do that? It is in their best interests to have a truly low cost plan. See?

A good plan has low cost services (no hidden or camouflaged costs) and a core mix of investments that match the market’s performance. You can do yourself and the employees a favor by educating employees on the following:

1. Why you want employees to bring you their ideas on improving the plan.
2. Why your plan uses no load, low cost, index funds for its core mix of investments.
3. Why your plan provides self-directed accounts for employees.
4. How the plan is set up and why it was set up that way.
5. How the plan is managed and why it is managed that way.
6. How the plan is monitored to ensure that it remains low cost month-after-month, quarter-after-quarter, and year-after-year.

Read my articles and blog posts so that you, too, can learn how to set up a truly low cost plan, free. 

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank Cirullo

Examples:

1. If you hired the wrong consultant for your plan (he or she has a track record of recommending high cost plans), you won’t even know you made a mistake until someone proves to you that your plan costs more than it should.  
2. If you hired the wrong investment adviser (he or she has a track record of recommending investments that do not at least match index funds in performance), you won’t even know that you made a mistake until someone proves to you that your plan’s investments are costing  participants (employees) money–unnecessarily. 
3. If you hired a record keeper and administrator who charges more than the benchmark of $25.00, per eligible employee, per year with no hidden and camouflaged costs, you won’t even know that you made a mistake until someone proves to you that your plan’s recordkeeping and administration is costing  participants (employees) more money than it should. 

Did you know that most employers won’t ask for help if they unwittingly believe that their 401k or 403b plan is already low cost?

Please, do not make the amateur mistake of not asking a knowledgeable person to prove to you how much your plan is really costing your company and its employees.  Any knowledgeable person can know at a glance if your plan costs more than it should, and he or she will be able to prove it to you.  Easy!

Or you can just read my articles and blog posts, and you will learn how to do the right thing–free.

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank Cirullo

The only problem is this. Most people never realize that their plan can easily be improved, so they do nothing, at all. 

Just think about it. No matter how good (low cost) you may think your plan is, it probably can be improved–fast. But, first, you must be trained so that you can see your plan’s problems. Easy! I train you, free. Next, you need to be aware of how advancing technology can cut your plan’s cost.  And you need to be aware of how the vendors compete with each other for your business–why they are so successful at selling their expensive services and/or investments to plan sponsors.  It is not asking too much of you to know this stuff, because it is your fiduciary duty to be informed. And it is also your fiduciary duty to always act in the best interests of the participants (employees), right?

To see your plan’s problems, it is best to assume that you may have made a few mistakes and you simply don’t have the right kind of training to catch them. That way your mind will be open to see what you may have done that was wrong.

Okay, so how does one know where to look for mistakes?  In other words, how do you know that your plan may be costing you more money than it should?  And how is it possible to fix problems that you don’t even see–yet? 

It’s like this. You can improve your plan the easy way. Or you can hope that, somehow, you will notice your own mistakes. I bet you will never catch any of your own mistakes, which means your plan will continue to cost more than it should!

The easy way to fix your plan is to read my articles and blog posts, because I only show you the proven ideas that work every time they are tried.  That’s how you can improve your plan fast! See?

Best wishes,

Frank Cirullo

For instance, does your 401(K) or 403(b plan serve YOU? Or does it cost more than it should?

Remember, procrastinating on cutting your plan’s cost won’t help anyone at your company,

You can do the right thing by taking five easy steps, today:

1. Switch out of a core mix of investments that does not at least match the market’s performance.
2. Hire a recordkeeper and administrator who will charge you not more than the benchmark for the cost of recordkeeping and administration.  Remember, no hidden or camouflaged costs are allowed.
3. Manage your plan so that it is truly low cost.
4. Educate the employees so that they, too, can become part of an effective system of checks and balances.  That way they will protect themselves and your company from a renegade fiduciary who does not get it on what a truly low cost plan looks like.
5. Monitor your plan so that it remains truly low cost month-after-month, quarter-after-quarter, and year-after-year.

Best wishes,

Your teacher, Frank Cirullo